(CNN)The NFL and the NFL Players Association have a staunch policy prohibiting marijuana use, but some players are asking them to reconsider it, saying pot can be used for pain relief, and possibly as concussion prevention.

If you play professional football, "your job automatically gives you the symptom of chronic pain," said Baltimore Ravens offensive tackle Eugene Monroe, who has played in the NFL since 2009. "You're hitting each other as hard as possible every single day in practice. Your body is in pain a lot of time."

More and more players are looking to marijuana for pain relief, he said, despite risking punishment from the NFL.

The Oregon Marijuana Business Conference (formerly the Oregon Medical Marijuana Business Conference) is coming back to Eugene, Oregon next month. I attended last year’s event in Eugene, and it was absolutely outstanding. The speakers were amazing, the vendors were great, and I made a lot of new friends. This upcoming Oregon Marijuana Business Conference (OMBC) is shaping up to be even more fantastic. I will be there, and I hope that you will be too. The OMBC takes place April 24th. It’s going to be a one day cannabis crash course that can’t be missed.

Yesterday the OMBC announced that Tommy Chong will be attending the conference and talking about his life and the future. I have stated many, many times on this blog that I’m an enormous Tommy Chong fan, and have been since I was a kid. I was a Chong fan well before I started consuming cannabis, which is something that I think a lot of people can’t say. I grew up watching Cheech and Chong movies and listening to their Wedding Album on vinyl. My uncle still rocks that record to this day!

Tommy Chong has seen a lot and done a lot in regards to cannabis, a lot of it occurring well before cannabis was fashionable. There is a lot that people can learn from him, from his days as one of the famed Cheech and Chong duo, to his arrest and incarceration as part of Operation Pipe Dreams, and into today with all of the activism and cannabis industry stuff that he has going on. I know that I personally can’t wait to hear what he has to say.